This invention relates to a supported photocatalyst and a method for the catalytic photoreaction of a photodecomposable reactant.
Photocatalysts such as titanium oxide and zirconium oxide are known to be effective for decomposing a harmful organic compound or NO.sub.x into harmless substances by irradiation with an actinic radiation such as UV light. Since such photocatalysts are in the form of fine powder, however, it is difficult to recover the catalysts from the reaction mixture.
To cope with this problem, a method is proposed in which the powder catalyst is fixed to a suitable support with a binder resin. The binder resin is, however, susceptible to photodecomposition or photooxidation so that the service life of the composite catalyst is not satisfactory. Moreover, since the surface of the catalyst is coated with the binder resin, the catalytic activity is lowered.